After Much Loss Comes Faith and Healing

Jared and I have known each other for 18 years today. We went on our first date to the Kyoto in Salt Lake. It is a Japanese restaurant on 1100 East and 1300 South. It was Homecoming Dance 1991.

We were set up. Jared's friends knew me, but Jared and I didn't know each other at all. One of his friends wanted him to go to the dance with them, but Jared didn't have a date. He'd tried to ask 2 other girls, but they'd already been asked. So, in order to get a date for Jared with a girl he didn't know, his friends decided they had to trick him. So, they told him he was asking a girl by the name of Sarah Leymaster. So, after he drops off his treats on our doorstep, he runs out to the bushes where his friends who were with him are waiting for him. He gets behind the bushes, and his friends are laughing their heads off. Jared asks what is so funny. His friend says, "Dude, you just asked Sarah Taylor, not Sarah Leymaster!" Jared said, "Who the heck is Sarah Taylor." So, Jared goes home to find my Sophomore picture in the yearbook. He says he doesn't know me. He decides to not call me and rescind the invitation to the dance because he knows Paul, who was in his body conditioning class, and he says, "At least she's not ugly."

As for me? When I got the invitation and it said Jared Bott, I went to the yearbook to look him up. I had never seen him before. Paul was sitting right there and said he thought he knew him from body conditioning. So, after some persuasion from my siblings, I decided to say yes.

The date was uncomfortable. Jared was super nervous and didn't talk much. He had just gotten his drivers license and was insecure about his driving. But, the look in his eyes was sweet.

18 years and 5 kids later brings a life of ups and downs. We rejoice in the good times, and struggle together through the bad times. I am grateful every day for second chances to show love, committment, repentance, and gratitude for one another.